Rangers called upon their captain to dig them out of a Livingston-shaped hole on the opening day of league action, winning 2-1 at the Tony Macaroni Arena.
The Lions got ahead after five minutes when new Ibrox signing John Souttar got caught on the wrong side of his man and unfortunately for him, that man was Joel Nouble, who expertly lobbed a shot into the net. They took a lead into half-time and still were ahead after an hour.
Scott Arfield rose from the bench to head home and restore parity but it was James Tavernier again who proved a match-winner for boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst. He curled in a free-kick from an angle at distance to spark bedlam in a packed away end, just 60 seconds after his teammate had equalised. It puts Rangers on maximum points after one match and here are three things we learned from the outing.
READ MORE: How to watch Livingston v Rangers: TV channel, kick-off time, live stream details and team news
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Captain consistency
New season, same Tavernier. The right-back was laying siege along with left-back Borna Barisic to the Livi box with cross after cross and almost scored a header before Arfield eventually did.
His goal was a touch of class those in Light Blue have come to expect from a captain who is set to sign a new deal.
Signing impressions
It wasn't John Souttar's best display as he found himself on the wrong side of Nouble, who in turn punished him for a lack of sharpness.
Antonio Colak could have had a goal had it not been chopped off and Malik Tillman also blasted an effort into Row Z as new faces are given an introduction into SPFL life.
Digging deep
This is a good result for Rangers, even more so given the circumstances. It had begun to get tense at a ground them and their rivals have stumbled before. Arfield made a good impact from the bench and eventually quality shone through.
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